Bradley Bethel's "Unverified" Premieres

Unverified, the documentary made by former UNC learning specialist Bradley Bethel, shows another side the academic scandal that has rocked the campus for years now. It played Friday night at the Varsity Theater.

“I wanted to set the record straight,” he said. “I was really outraged by the narrative that was out there that wasn’t true, that was so skewed and that good people got hurt.”

The movie is narrated by and features Bethel, who stepped down from his position to make the film and his co-workers, athletic tutors Beth Bridger and Jaimie Lee.

Bradley Bethel’s film ‘Unverified’ is set to premiere on Jan. 8.

After the Wainstein report was released in October 2014, Bridger and Lee were fired. Bethel said he thought his colleagues were treated unfairly by the university, which was one of the major reasons he decided to make the documentary.

“This was not athletics corruption, this was not athletics or anyone associated with athletics violating particular rules,” he said. “This was a failing on the academic side of campus.”

Many prominent figures appear in the film, including former head football coach Butch Davis, former football player Dre Bly, former chancellor James Moeser.

Former basketball assistant coach Joe Holladay said he got involved with the film help one of his co-workers.

“I don’t think the Wainstein report told the whole story,” Holladay said. “In particular, from my point of view since I was in basketball, I wanted to stick up for Wayne Walden, plus our other academic counselors, but I knew Wayne so well and had worked with him 20 years.”

Walden worked as an academic adviser under Roy Williams for 15 years at Kansas and six years at UNC. Walden left UNC in 2009, but his name was mentioned in the Wainstein report.

“A lot of people who are in the middle will see the other side of the story,” Holladay said. “I don’t think you’re ever going to change people from certain schools or some people who are looking at us who love this (scandal), you’ll never change their minds, but I think it will help a lot of people associated with UNC to feel better about it.”

Bethel said he hopes people who see the documentary start to see the scandal in a different light.

“I don’t think the university or the media or Wainstein are going to apologize to anybody,” he said. “But people’s stories got to be told.”

According to the Unverified Kickstarter page, there will be showings of the movie again in Chapel Hill on January 11 and 12.

To read Art Chansky’s review of the movie, click here.

Bradley Bethel’s “Unverified” Premieres

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